Wednesday, May 30, 2012

So since I made some dulce de leche this weekend, I decided I needed to use it for something. I already made Churro Cupcakes, I had to come up with another bright idea. I hadn't made donuts in a while, so why not churro donuts. I pulled out my Babycakes mini donut maker and set to work.

I flipped through the recipes that came with the machine and found one for Buttermilk Spice Donuts which I adapted to a cinnamon donut. And since I never have buttermilk on hand, I just used regular milk and white vinegar.

I did learn one thing new from Love From the Oven website. She glazes her donuts before adding any toppings, to keep the donuts moist. That sounded like a reasonable idea.

I could have eaten it just like this. Ok fine I did eat one just with the glaze, well ok..maybe two, but who's counting. The recipe makes plenty to spare.

But in my defense, I did get some help from this guy, who woke up from his nap in the middle of my glazing.

He was my first taste tester. He gave me a thumbs up in the recipe. The rest of his hand was busy shoving the donut in his mouth.

Monday, May 28, 2012

Well, I finally did it. I made some dulce de leche this weekend. I have been thinking about it for a long time, but was too scared to do it. I remember hearing one of our friends making some on the stove top and it exploded and there was sticky stuff all over the kitchen and ceiling. No thanks, don't want anyone of that.

Then lately I have been reading about some food bloggers making it in a slow cooker. Hmm. That sounded a little safer. Usually, they put the cans of sweetened condensed milk directly into the slow cooker fill with water and voila, done in about 10hrs. But then I found a blogger who had a different idea. She put the milk into canning jars instead of leaving it in the can, due to the potential BPA contamination. That sounded like a great idea for me. Here is the link http://www.theyummylife.com . I couldn't wait to try it.

All you need are 2 jars (14 oz.) of sweetened condensed milk, 3 wide mouth 1/2 pint canning jars and a slow cooker. What could be easier.

You just have to make sure you put enough water in the slow cooker. These jars fit perfect in my Crockpot.

And then set it for 10hrs. You might be able to put it on high and do it faster, but I didn't want to risk it. I followed the steps as instructed. The end result being a fantastic tasting dulce de leche. Smooth, creamy and ready to spread on whatever you like. I spread some on the mini donuts I had just made. Mmmm!
And the best part is that there is no mess. The dulce de leche is already in jars. I put mine in the fridge for later use, but like http://www.theyummylife.com says, you can put a cute tag on it and give it as gifts. I know quite a few people who would enjoy receiving this gift.

Homemade Dulce de Leche

by The Sweet Chick

Prep Time: 5-10 min

Cook Time: 10 hrs

Keywords: slow-cooker topping sweetened condensed milk Spanish

Ingredients (3- 1/2pt jars)

2 cans (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk

Also needed

3 wide mouth 1/2 pt canning jars

slow cooker

water

Instructions

Pour the cans of sweetened condensed milk evenly into the 3 canning jars and close lids firmly by hand.

Place canning jars at the bottom of your slow cooker and fill with hot water till there is at least 1 inch of water above the level of the jars. The hot water will speed up the cooking process.

Set your slow cooker to 10 hours. I quickly checked the results after 9 hours, but I let it run the full 10 hours as recommended.

After 10 hours, carefully remove the jars from slow cooker with canning tongs. Of course I didn't buy these and just using regular tongs with rubber grippers. Just be careful not to drop the jar.

Place jars on a heat safe surface and let the jars cool off to room temperature. If there is any rust on the outside lids of the jar, just simply wipe it off.

Once it has cooled off, just unscrew the lids and dip in a spoon. The lids will be sealed, but with a little prying, do come off easily. Your dulce de leche is ready to be served on crepes, pancakes, fruit, donuts, or whatever you wish.

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

OK, so this is how it all started. I had a bag of pretzel m&m's that I wanted to use. I didn't want to make cookies, I was thinking more along the lines of a ball. I know I wanted to use crushed pretzels. The pretzel/peanut butter combo has already been done, so I wanted to do something different. Biscoff and pretzels sounded good, but the combo had to be tested. Out came the jar of Biscoff and in I dipped the pretzel. Mmmm. We had a winner.

So I proceeded to crush the pretzels to tiny bits in the food processor. I measured out 2 cups and threw it in my stand mixer. I figured 1 cup of Biscoff would be enough to mix with the pretzels. Boy was I wrong. The consistency was too dry. I couldn't form it into balls. I didn't give up. Instead I walked over to the pantry to see what else I could use. Hmmm. Fluff! Yes, fluff works with almost anything. All right, I added 1 cup fluff. Nope not enough. 2 cups fluff? Still not enough. Darn it!

Think. That's what I did. How about melted butter? OK, I added 3 tbsp melted butter. Although the batter was slightly stickier, it still didn't hold well. Time to pull out the big guns. I went back to the pantry and found a jar of Granache caramel spread I brought back from Canada at Easter. I hadn't even opened it yet. Well, I was getting desperate. Into the batter went 1 cup of caramel spread. Finally the batter was the right consistency. But did it have the right flavor? Better than I expected. I couldn't wait to dip it in chocolate!

I also couldn't wait to try out my new toy. A cake pop mold from My Little Cupcake. I already had the cupcake pop mold and loved it. This one is even easier to use. Here is where the m&m's came into play. I filled half the mold with batter and pressed in the pretzel m&m and then packed on some more batter and closed the lid and squeezed out the extra.

I did end up with a lot of little bon bons from this recipe even though I was eating the batter all along. Sorry, but it was really good. For the coating I didn't have any dark chocolate candy melt on hand, so I used vanilla flavored and it worked out just fine.

But I wasn't done yet. These little beauties had to be decorated. I melted some of the caramel spread and vanilla candy melt together to drizzle over the tops. For toppings I used dark chocolate sprinkles, bits of left over pretzels, chopped walnuts and some I left with just the caramel drizzle. Don't they look purty?

Now it was time for another taste test. Just look at that bite. Oh goodness! How do I describe it? Well, if a Twix bar and a pretzel got together and had a baby, then this would be it. The sweet Biscoff blended with the salty pretzel and a hint of caramel and covered in chocolate was pure bliss. Just look at this guy, he agrees with me.

Biscoff Caramel Prezel Bon Bons

by The Sweet Chick

Prep Time: 20-30 min

Keywords: no bake dessert biscoff pretzels caramel dark chocolate

Ingredients (about 36 bon bons)

For the Bon Bons

2 cups crushed pretzels

1 cup Biscoff spread

2 cups marshmallow fluff

3 tbsp melted butter

1 cup caramel spread

For the Coating

1 cup dark chocolate chips

1 cup vanilla flavored candy melt (or dark chocolate)

For the Drizzle

1/2 cup caramel spread

1/2 cup vanilla flavored candy melt

For the Toppings

dark chocolate sprinkles

chopped walnuts

pretzel bits

Instructions

In a food processor chop up the pretzels until you have 2 cups crushed pretzels.

Place the crushed pretzels in a stand mixer and add the Biscoff, fluff, melted butter and caramel. Mix well, until batter becomes a dough like consistency and can be molded.

Using your hands or a cake pop mold, shape the batter into balls and place on wax paper. Place the balls in the fridge for 1-2 hours until they are firm.

In a deep bowl, melt the chocolate chips and the candy melt together in the microwave at 30 second intervals until melted. Stir well so there are no lumps.

Using a fork or a candy dipping tool, carefully dip the balls in the chocolate melt until well coated and then place on a clean wax paper until the chocolate hardens. If needed, place balls back in fridge for a few minutes.

Once chocolate is set, melt caramel and candy melt in microwave at 30 second intervals until melted and stir well until smooth. Place caramel in a frosting piping bag with tip or a ziplock bag snipped at the corner to drizzle the caramel over the balls. Sprinkle with toppings if desired.

Sunday, May 6, 2012

When your week starts off with an ambulance ride, a broken tooth, and stitches, you know it's not good. Last week a after nursing the two kids through a stomach virus, I succumbed to it. It hit me like a ton of bricks in the middle of the night. I felt awful. My husband woke up at 6am on Monday to a big thump. That was me. I had fainted, face first onto the bathroom tile floor. When I came to, I saw a piece of tooth and blood on the floor next to me. Not good. After my husband helped me up apparently I passed out again and he called the ambulance. I was not keen on being paraded around town in my pj's with straight-out-of-bed hair. I begged my husband to let me take a shower and do my hair, but he wouldn't let me. Silly me, even sick I want to look good. But I supposed with a split lip and a broken tooth, I wasn't really going to improve my looks any.

I did indeed go to the hospital because I knew I was going to need stitches and they had drugs to make me stop feeling sick. I spent the week home last week, recovering from the virus and my injuries. Needless to say I really didn't feel like baking anything. But now that I am better I can share a new recipe with you. For those of you who like scones (me! me!), here is a new flavor. Lemon Cranberry Scones with white chocolate chips inside and drizzled with white chocolate on the outside. Sounds yummy right? Well they are.

Scones are so easy to make and there are so many possible flavors. I can't get enough of them.

This time I found a better way to get triangles. I rolled the dough into a ball, then flattened it out on a lightly floured surface. Using a pizza cutter I divided the circle into eight triangles.

I then separated the triangles and placed them on my cookie sheet to bake.

They came out much better this way. I should have probably made the triangles a little smaller, because the scones did come out pretty big. But no one complained. They ate the whole thing.

Mix flour, sugar, and baking powder. Cut up butter and add to flour mixture. In a separate bowl mix egg and milk until blended and add to the flour mixture. Add lemon rind and lemon juice.

Next mix in the cranberries and white chocolate chips. The batter will be a dough like consistency.

Take the dough and roll it into one big ball. Place the ball onto a lightly floured surface and flatten out to about an inch thick. With a knife or pizza cutter, divide the dough circle into equal triangles. I made eight big scones, but you can make yours a little smaller if you like.

Separate the triangles and place on a cookie sheet.

Bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes or until tops are golden.

When scones have cooled off, melt the white chocolate/candy melt according to package and drizzle over the tops. Let the chocolate set and then it's time to eat and enjoy!